1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spatial bulletin board system for virtually writing a memo in an actual space and displaying the memo superimposed on a picked-up image in the actual space.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the present information-oriented society in which IT technologies have developed to a high degree and ubiquitous computing has been widely developed, communications using various techniques are made possible between users and stores or between users. Examples of techniques for one-way communication from a store to users include television advertisement or Internet advertisement. A communication technique combining an actual space and an advertisement has also been also proposed. To guide the user to the store, this communication technique displays an advertisement broadcast from a broadcasting station on a display surface of a head-mounted display (HMD) fitted by the user in correspondence with the actual space. More specifically, the technique is configured to receive advertisement contents and positional information of the advertisement in the actual space using the HMD, detect the position and attitude of the display surface on which to display the advertisement, determine the display position of the advertisement on the display surface based on the position and attitude and the received positional information, and display the received advertisement contents at the display position.
On the other hand, examples of the technique for communication among users include calls using a cellular phone, video image communication using a cellular phone with a camera, e-mail or the like. Communication using an information communication terminal such as a cellular phone (calls, data communication) has become the simplest communication technique at present.
However, since the above-described is the configuration in which an advertisement (including advertisement contents and positional information) produced by a sponsor side is broadcast from a broadcasting station, it lacks flexibility as the communication technique. Furthermore, when applied to a communication between users, it is not realistic for an individual user who does not have knowledge or facilities to create a message (including a memo, image, other information) which is equivalent to an advertisement and have it registered in the broadcasting station. There is a demand for a communication technique that enables messages to be exchanged using an actual space using a simpler method.